It might not be a sure-fire reality. There have been a couple of games that have shown up in random arcades with no announcement or promotion, like Rap Freaks, UBeat, X-Trial (The BeMani racing game), which never got made into finished products.

Could be a case of "Will it work? We don't know.. Hey, you, players, try it and see if it works".

It might not be a sure-fire reality. There have been a couple of games that have shown up in random arcades with no announcement or promotion, like Rap Freaks, UBeat, X-Trial (The BeMani racing game), which never got made into finished products.

Could be a case of "Will it work? We don't know.. Hey, you, players, try it and see if it works".

It might not be a sure-fire reality. There have been a couple of games that have shown up in random arcades with no announcement or promotion, like Rap Freaks, UBeat, X-Trial (The BeMani racing game), which never got made into finished products.

Could be a case of "Will it work? We don't know.. Hey, you, players, try it and see if it works".

You wear the gloves, and speak into the microphone. The game is mostly about moving your hands.

This appears to have actually been made into a finished product in japan, although it looks nothing like the cabinet that they tested in London, and it doesn't have the Bemani logos on it.

It's basicaly an awesome monster truck game that tied in with the DS EuroMIX 1.5 and International Superstar Soccer Arcade (also never released), all of which kind of evolved into E-Amuse. Every day, there was a different "Internet Ranking Course", which kept track of scores the same way DDR X E-Amuse machines do now. The song selection was pretty awesome, but was apparantly going to be extended to all of the Bemani series. The version at Play2Win used long (think 6 minutes long) versions of all the songs. Classic Party was later put into GF/DM as Classic Party Triathlon, and Pastel Party Paradise as "PPR".

The real tragedy is that it had a version of Hypnotic Crisis which was absolutely amazing, and never got released anywhere :{

Ahh. So they're getting experimental, trying to make more "new products" now. (Why not another Rumble Roses? Especially a hands-on Wii version!) At first glance, I thought Rap Freaks used headphones.

And I'd actually like to hear that Hypnotic Crisis extended mix.

They weren't extended mixes, they were completely new recordings. They were all about 5 minutes long, but after 5 minutes, they looped back into the chorus of the song, and then played again from the chorus onwards.

I remember playing VS Mode, and just sitting there in the cars, not trying at all to win the race, so that the game wouldn't end, and we could listen to all of Hypnotic Crisis for 10 minutes. The Konami guy came over and got angry at us, though :{

GuitarFreaks and DrumMania
1. This will be the next game after the V series.
2. A wide LCD monitor is used instead of CRT.
3. There is a HELP button on the machine. It tells you how to play the game.
4. e-AMUSEMENT card reader is now a touch sensor.
5. Background movies now play on the entire screen with some parts hidden due to the interface.
6. Radar Chart, similar to Groove Radar in DDR, has been removed.
7. Difficulties are now one digit and two decimal places instead of 1-99. (i.e. 5.73)
8. The gauge must be above a certain point, otherwise you will not clear the stage. (IIDX?)
9. The machine is expected to be more or less 2,000,000 yen each.

GuitarFreaks
1. There are now 5 neck buttons.
2. Long notes have been added.
3. Open pick mode and RANDOM command has been removed.
4. BASIC and ADVANCED difficulties use 4 buttons. EXTREME difficulties uses 5 buttons plus open note.
5. Foot pedal has been added as an effector.
6. Effector knob can adjust volume.
7. Wailing can now be done by swinging up, down and horizontally.
8. When wailing, there is vibration feature, which can be turned on or off.
9. There are large speaker units to the left and right of the machine.

DrumMania
1. Left cymbal, hi-hat pedal and floor tom has been added.
2. The lane order is now as follows from left to right: left cymbal, hi-hat, hi-hat pedal, snare, high tom, bass, low tom, floor tom and right cymbal.
3. The machine now features a stage platform with support frames around the machine.

OMG I just watched the video and was staring at GF arcade for like 2 minutes until I realized that those big speakers are actually PART of it!!

The game looks completely different. I don't know why but it's somewhere in Rock Band style. It's too flashy for me. But it looks nice. Not really sure if I can manage to play on this machine O_O (I play on dark) and even with left cymbal on autoplay it might get a bit messy. Otherwise the DM setup looks good. I guess it's much better than sitting in the open.

Well, it's certainly something I did not expect. I'm shocked...

The songwheel is like...korean games one. I wonder how many songs will be on the machine because with too many songs in there it might be impossible to choose a song. But I guess that won't be such a problem?

No really...lately I went through konami.jp/bemani sites and news and this shocked me the most.

If DM is done right, this would be AMAZING. Love how it caught us all by complete surprise too.

I've wanted hihat pedal/double bass pedal and cymbal (to go with the right one which is often ride cymbal) for years. It's one of the few things the bad Drummania clones that have been appearing at ATEI in recent years have often got right...